How hard is it becoming a YouTuber?

22:12
Kelly Wheelhouse
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I love making videos for YouTube. I feel that it is a great way to express myself and I love occupying myself with preparing, filming, and editing videos. I have always been very self-conscious though and this was always the reason I didn't start YouTube before.
My partner and I finally set up a channel together, where we agreed we would stay behind the camera and review items. This had worked out great, but eventually I would have to get over my fears and show my face to the public. When the time came for a video with our faces in we argued a lot, because I was terrified. I didn't want people to see me. I was ashamed of how I look and I was so worried that people would make fun of me or dislike the videos just because I am not gorgeous or skinny. He eventually got his own way and we did a video with our faces in front of the camera. Below is the first video we filmed with us in front of the camera.

Once this video had been live for a while I started to realise that none of the feedback was anything bad about me. In fact we even had one viewer tell us we are cute.

I then started to realise that on YouTube it doesn't matter who you are, or what you look like. If you produce good videos people will like you for that. It has taken a lot of time, but I am slowly getting more confident in front of the camera.

I know everyone will eventually get haters, that is unfortunately a part of YouTube that everyone has to accept. All you can do is hold your head up high knowing that you enjoyed making the video, editing the video, and gaining views. I don't get many views on my videos at the moment, but that doesn't discourage me whatsoever. I enjoy the process of making videos and to me the whole point is to have fun. To some people it is a business, but when you have a small channel like me it can be very rewarding to let loose and make content that is relevant to you, and content that is fun to create.

Many people think that YouTube is easy, mainly because it is so easy to set up an account. Also, more kids today want to be YouTubers rather than footballers. But do they realise how much effort a YouTube channel can be? If you have a channel yourself, and you find it very easy, I say that you are doing something wrong. It is not easy in any way.

Firstly, you have to film the video. To do so you need the right equipment- which doesn't come cheap. I hear a lot on YouTube that the video quality isn't everything, and your content is more important than the quality itself. This is not completely true. If you posted a video that was very bad sound and image quality, people won't appreciate your videos as much as if they were in a higher quality. For example, with AspectReviews we started out with a cheap compact digital camera which had no auto-focus. This affected our videos massively as we couldn't show details of products, and it wouldn't focus on writing on the product packaging. Since getting a camcorder with auto-focus our videos have been better quality and we have had better feedback and viewing figures because people can now see the product reviews more clearly. As your channel gets more popular, you will also want to look more professional and for us this means eventually getting an even better camera than the one we have.As well as a camera you will also need a tripod, and if you want to do videos when light is low, (so in the winter evenings) the light from a standard bulb lowers the video quality. For us we eventually got a studio lighting "softbox" to make the light look more natural on the dark days. After working out which equipment you need for filming, you then need editing software for your computer. We started out using Windows Movie Maker, which is fine for beginners. But yet again, after a while you want to be able to make your videos better quality and that means getting better software. Instead of buying some expensive software, then having to purchase it again when we got a new laptop, we decided to get a Macbook Pro which comes pre-installed with iMovie. iMovie is brilliant for the intermediate level YouTuber. It does much more than the simple Movie Maker, but the problem is the huge price tag on the Macbook itself.

Once you have got over how empty your pockets are, you then need to spend so much of your spare time coming up with ideas, filming, editing and uploading the videos.

For some people the ideas come easy, but to others this takes a long time. For AspectReviews it is fairly easy as we just find things to review, and film our review of them. But for my Kelly Pendragon channel it takes much more effort. I need to consider what videos to do, and they take a lot more editing than a simple review video.

Overall, if you want your channel to work you will need to spend a lot of time and money on it. It's more than just a hobby, it is a project, and eventually may be a business.

Making money back from it is not easy either, so if you think that you can create a channel and rake in the cash then you are going to be in for an extreme shock. I will give you some figures.

For AspectReviews channel, it took 1 year before we earned our first £60- and by this time we had invested over £300 on the channel. Fast forward to now and if you were to include all the equipment, and the macbook, and all the products- it works out we have spent over £1600 and have only earned back about £120.

I am not saying it's the same for all channels, but people can't expect to make instant profits. Especially now when so many people are trying to do the same thing.

I wish everyone the best of luck with YouTube, and I would never discourage anyone from becoming a YouTuber, but I want people to understand how hard it is. If it isn't my confidence issues getting in the way, then it's lack of time to spend on videos, or lack of money to purchase items to review and equipment for the channel.

Be aware of what you are getting into before you go ahead with it.

If you have any questions about YouTube or being a YouTuber then feel free to drop me a message in my contact box on the right of my Blog.